DAY SIX – FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING – IRON BOWL DAY

David and I met back up at Union Hill United Methodist Church shortly after 6:30 a.m. to get our vehicles repositioned for walking and pickup. Both of us had a great Thanksgiving Day with our families. We felt somewhat rested after a day off from walking and ready to go again, to see what was ahead around the next curve or over the next hill.

We started walking at 7:40 a.m. with the sun shining and the temp had gone up to a blazing 40 degrees. Our destination for the day was Halls Crossroad on Highway 223 south of Union Springs.

After starting at the Church on Highway 29 we opted to hop over on a railroad track and walk the track for a while. We walked the tracks for about 3 miles and we made our pictures while on the tracks. Rather fitting for David and I to walk some tracks, David’s Grandad, and my Dad both worked for the L&N Railroad out of Georgiana, AL.

We soon turned onto Highway 223 and the road started to climb and very soon it was apparent that we would be walking a ridge with great views on such a beautiful clear day. Not too far up 223 we met and made a new friend. Mark Green was walking around a house that was being constructed on a high ridge with a beautiful view. We introduced ourselves to Mark and started a conversation. He shared his brother was building the house and his parent’s lived across the highway down a county road. We had a great conversation with Mark, had prayer right there on the hilltop, invited him to walk some with us and moved on. He was interested in possibly joining us to walk, and we thought he might, but I think the Iron Bowl kept him home.

We found a church with the sun shining bright on the porch and steps, so that made a warm wonderful place to sit down in the warmth and eat lunch. I think it was Zebulon Baptist Church.

It didn’t take long to determine that Highway 223 was busy with Chicken Trucks. We learned that Wayne Farms had a chicken processing plant in Union Springs, and most of the chicken farms were to the south. The chicken trucks were making turn hauls like the log trucks had done earlier on 106 & 77. Therefore, we saw several trucks and drivers multiple times. The waves were back and forth like we were old-time friends.

Just before leaving Pike County we crossed the upper end of the Conecuh River. A few hundred yards before crossing the bridge in the swamp we heard something in the trees and looked up to see two raccoons playing around up high in a tree.

We arrived at the Bullock County line and were getting pictures made when calls and text started coming in about “The Game”. David and I thought it was a 3:30 kickoff so we did not have our little radio on yet. There was a house right on the county line and the sign was in front of it. We made some new friends here as well, it was four cousins. Another neighbor came out and made a picture for us so we could have all four cousins in the pic. So we then walked on having turned the radio on and the game was so good and exciting that our pace picked up.

We ended the walk on this day at Halls Crossroad having traveled 21.3 miles. We opted at this point to drive on into Union Springs and find a restaurant and watch the last quarter of the game. “Los Portales” was the winner and turned out to be our friends for the night.

We ate and watched the end of the game and then shuttled vehicles and measured our walk for Saturday. We determined that we would camp in the parking lot at the First Baptist Church. Therefore, we had no electricity so we went back and hung out at “Los Portales” until closing time which became bed time in the parking lot.